Finally, Mad Men will return to AMC on March 25th. For the street campaign, AMC chose to roll out the announcement by distilling the ingredients down to the bare minimum. They are so confident in the popularity of Mad Men that they are relying on only two elements. One, a tiny illustrated Don Draper, pulled from the shows intro, and two, the premiere date.

The strength of this campaign reveals so much about the inner-workings of AMC. They know their audience and are speaking directly to them. (If you haven't seen the show, you will not get this campaign.) They trust the power of excellent communication design. (The drama created by the scale and white space stand alone in the over-decorated world of street campaigns.) AMC is willing to commit to a concept that separates itself so dramatically from all others that it is redefining what a street campaign can look like.

But wait. There's more...

In the Manhattan subway system these ads have taken on a life of their own. First revealed in this Vanity Fair article and this Gothamist article, and then this followup from Gothamist. There is a wave of make-your-own ads, first on the actual subway ads by taggers, graf artists and out of work advertising creatives, then later, Gothamist invited readers to submit their own photoshop mashups. Don would be so proud.

Above is the original blank on the NY subway. Below is an original sketch over the ad, and then few of my favorite photoshop mash-ups pulled from Gothamist.com.

While not as strong as the "falling Don" part of the campaign. There are supplemental concepts that relay on type alone to remind you what it is you missed so much from Mad Men.

Photos of the "Andaz Hotel Don", "Envy is Back" and "Adultery is Back" were pulled from http://dailybillboard.blogspot.com. It's a great site for reviewing LA's latest street campaigns.